


A Touch of Normality

by cricket_aria



Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-15
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2019-02-02 20:02:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12733347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cricket_aria/pseuds/cricket_aria
Summary: When Bethany is told that someone's looking for her in the Gallows courtyard she knows it might just be an excuse to lure her away for a chance to prank the new girl, but it's worth the chance they're telling the truth.





	A Touch of Normality

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadyNorbert](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyNorbert/gifts).



“Hey, you. Someone’s looking for you at the courtyard.”

Bethany looked up to give her thanks but the girl who’d passed on the message, Danica she thought was her name, had already walked away. No great surprise, she’d had good luck with winning over the children who’d been brought into the Circle but many of the older mages remained standoffish at best. Lonely though it was she could understand the reaction, some of them brainwashed enough by the charter to fear a mage who’d remained an apostate for so long, others angry that someone so new was granted a luxury held by very few; a room of her own, barren cell of one though it was, a courtesy granted only to mages born of the very wealthiest families. Bethany was amazed that Meredith still allowed it, but she gathered it was a plot to hold off any risk that some coalition of the rich might be driven to the blasphemy of hiring a strong enough force of mercenaries to break out their little darlings and shatter all the phylacteries out of outrage at hearing they were being mistreated.

She would have vastly preferred if she’d been able to experience the wealth itself, even if only for one day. But the horrifying thing was that she could understand how it worked, even having come into the circle as a grown woman just having a space to herself made her feel more well-treated than the men and women packed into shared rooms. If she’d come in as a small frightened child she could see how just having a door to hide behind when she was crying, and a thing she could hold above the others there, might be enough to make her tell her family if they got in touch that she was being treated much better than it sounded like in stories.

The message might have been a trap, she knew. It wouldn’t be the first time that someone had lured her out of her room in the name of some prank. But Danica had never seemed the type to do anything crueler than ignore her at worst, and Bethany knew that if she let herself become bitter and distrusting of the others things would never improve.

Though it was hard to put aside her book. She’d been waiting for _weeks_ for it to make its way to her; though she was sure it had arrived new by the time it reached it it had become so smudged up and battered that she felt safe in assuming it had passed through every Templar at the Gallows in the name of making absolutely _sure_ it wasn’t some encoded grimore on its way to her. Let it never be said that Meredith spent her cruelty on the mages alone, she expected her Templars to live to the most austere of Andastrian standards to the point that it was hardly surprising that they would all leap on an excuse to read a novel. Bethany wouldn’t even begrudge them the dogears, not when it gave something to entertain them when they’d otherwise be taking out their boredom on their charges. Finally having it in her hands made her not want to put it down again, but the paperback men and women between the pages would need to wait in favor of someone made of flesh.

And if no one was there she might read out in the sun for a bit. She certainly wasn’t going to leave it behind in case it was the target of luring her away. She’d be happy enough to set it out to make its way through her fellow mages, a thousand times more devoid of entertainment than the Templars, once she was finished, but she was _going_ to finish before it wandered away from her again.

Her first thought when she stepped outdoors was that it had indeed been a trick, no one was waiting for her at the gate. Then she heard “Sunshine! This way!” and turned to see Varric sitting on a blanket in one of the quieter corners of the courtyard.

“Varric, what are you plotting?” she asked as she walked up to him, feeling herself smiling more widely than she had in days.

“Plotting? Sunshine, you wound me! My plans are entirely straightforward.” Varric gestured across the blanket, at the basket sitting to one side and the pillow just the right size to give a person a bit more protection from the hard stone floor below then a little bit of cloth could provide, “Don’t you recognize a picnic when you see one?”

“I may have heard tell of them, now and then,” she said with a laugh, “but I think you might find the Templars aren’t likely to let one of their mages sit down and enjoy one.”

“All right, there might have been a _little_ plotting involved. A few questions asked about the schedule rotation, maybe a coin or two passing hands to convince one of the guards who should have been on duty to trade a shift. Just look around and I think you’ll agree we’re not likely to be bothered.”

Bethany looked around them and realized that he was telling the truth. Neither Thrask nor Keran were likely to bother them. “Then I’ll gladly join you,” she said, settling down onto the cushion he’d provided.

“Enjoying it that much?” he asked, nodding to the condition of the book she put down beside her with a pleased look on his face. She almost felt bad to correct him, except that she was sure that if she didn’t he’d ask questions about what she thought that she wouldn’t be able to answer yet.

“I’m afraid that I’ve hardly begun it,” she admitted, “it was only finally given to me last night.” She smiled wryly as she tipped it upright and allowed the pages to fall easily open at the spot where the spine had been badly cracked, “I’ll admit that it’s taking all of my self-control not to read ahead and find out what you put in here that the Templars loved so much.”

“Well now I’m curious too. Let’s find out what I need to do if I ever feel the pressing need to tailor a book to the hardheads,” he said, reaching out to pluck it up and skim the page in question. His eyebrows raised and he chuckled quietly to himself before placing it back down beside her.

“Don’t say you aren’t doing that on purpose, you cruel dwarf,” Bethany said, crossing her arms and mock-glaring at him. “Trying to capture my curiosity even more than it already is? Would you like me to ignore you in favor of getting back to my reading?”

“Oh, I don’t know. There are worse ways to spend an afternoon than watching a lovely woman reacting to my work,” he said, and she’d known him too long to flush at his calling her lovely yet she found it happening anyway. It was the look in his eye, she thought, serious as could be in spite of his joking tone. “Wouldn’t want the food to get cold though.”

He began pulling items out of his basket, and she groaned and covered her face with her hands as he started spreading them out. “Oh, Varric, I’m going to tear into that meat pie with my hands and embarrass us both if I don’t give myself a minute.”

“Sunshine, you could shove your face straight into it and you wouldn’t embarrass me. In fact, go ahead if the urge takes you, that’d be fun to see.” She heard clattering as he put a plate together, then felt his hand curl around her wrist and pull one hand gently away from her face. For someone so bombastic it was amazing how quietly he could move when he wanted, she hadn’t even heard him moving closer but when she opened her eyes he was close enough that his face was all she could see, so sympathetic-looking that she felt bad for doing something to take the smile from his face. “Do they really feed you so badly there?”

“They aren’t starving me, Varric, don’t be afraid of that,” she said quietly back, letting her hand fall down to curl through his and squeeze. “It’s all just… bland. So very very bland, I don’t think the cooks have even heard of salt. I’m likely to gorge myself sick if I’m not careful.”

His face eased again, as he moved the plate he’d prepared in front of her, “Well, that settles that, we’ll just need to make a regular date of this.”


End file.
